Friday, June 24, 2011

Graves Disease


Graves Disease is a disease that does not neatly fit into any one particular category.  It is an autoimmune disorder, and an autoimmune disorder is one that causes the body’s immune system to attack itself.  If a person has Graves Disease, its antibodies (white blood cells) don’t recognize its own cells.  In other words, the immune system sees normal, healthy cells as “enemies.”  Graves Disease is the most frequent reason that young children and teenagers have hyperthyroidism.  A person with Graves Disease typically has a thyroid that is overly active, and the symptoms of the disease are dependent upon whether the hyperthyroidism that has been created is mild or aggressive/severe.
What is Graves Disease
After people are diagnosed with the illness, they invariably ask, “What is Graves Disease?”  It tends to be something that most people have never heard of.  As expressed previously, Graves Disease is an autoimmune disorder, but it can look like a lot of other health challenges.  The entertainer Missy Elliot had an enlarged goiter (neck) and it seemed her neck was always swollen.  The disease can cause mood swings, emotional imbalances, night sweats, memory loss, and severe fatigue coupled with alternating over-activity.  According to the American Medical Association, sufferers can report everything from fast heartbeat to swollen necks/enlarged goiters, intolerance to heat, over activity and severe fatigue.  Each single symptom can be treated, but it is rare that people combine all the symptoms to recognize that there is one underlying cause.  So, what is Graves Disease?  It is hereditary.  It is complex.  Graves Disease, unless caught, can impair peoples’ entire lives.
How do you Get Graves Disease
“How do you get Graves Disease?” is often the next question.  Many think this is a disease that can be caught, but the truth is that it is hereditary.  The following is symptoms should be watched in case one thinks they may suffer from it.  Pay careful attention to the first five (5) symptoms and seek medical attention:  protruding eyes, enlarged neck/goiter, frequency of defecation/diarrhea, cardiac problems, muscle weakness, hot and moist skin, nervousness or anxiety, excessive sweating at any time and especially at night, sleep problems, unexplained weight loss.  While there is no cure for Graves Disease it can be treated with medication.  Missy Elliot suffered with hair loss, fatigue, and nerve-related problems.
About Graves Disease
Graves Disease is one of those diseases with so many different symptoms that it may often for people who suffer from it to recognize that they have it.  They may think that they have an irregular heartbeat, night sweats, hyperthyroidism or a lot of fatigue for reasons they cannot understand.  The underlying issue could be Graves Disease, which frequently goes undiagnosed because each of the symptoms it causes can actually be seen as single health events.  For more information about Graves Disease, ask your local health provider.

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